The Empress
by those-idjits-in-the-tardis
Summary: The Doctor, Amy, and Rory travel to 1915 London. There The Doctor meets someone he never thought he'd see again.


The TARDIS barreled through space and time, twisting on an invisible axis, an uncontrollable ship disguised as a blue police box. A tweed-clad man ran around the council trying in vain to regain control over the engine. A couple desperately held onto the guardrail. Suddenly the TARDIS came to a screeching halt, sending the couple flying onto the main engine. The three passengers had no idea where it materialized.

"Doctor, where are we?" the woman, Amy, inquired of the tweed-clad man.

"Well, my dear Pond, it seems that the TARDIS decided that it didn't like where we were headed so she sent us somewhere else. But her opinion does not matter," he said, pausing to stick his tongue out at the machine, "because I am in charge so if I just flip this switch, we can be on our merry way once more." As The Doctor flipped the switch, the TARDIS' lights faded and the emergency oxygen masks fell from the ceiling.

"I take it we won't be having a holiday in the Caribbean now," moaned Rory, the other man.

"Now what kind of attitude is that Mr. Pond?" responded The Doctor, cheerfully clapping Amy's husband on the back. "I'm still going to give my Ponds the ultimate holiday!" He then bounded out the door and into the unknown.

Amy quickly grabbed her coat and her husband's hand. "We best hurry along to keep him out of trouble. Goodness knows how he would survive without us."

The couple caught up with The Doctor outside of a large brick building. The trio seemed to have landed in the middle of a city somewhere. Old-fashioned cars sped by them on the road. "Where are we, exactly?" Rory asked.

"Exactly? London. Lambeth. St. Thomas' Hospital. Westminster Bridge Road." The Doctor indicated to a large sign on the front of the building and then to the street sign near the intersection a bit down the road. He walked towards a nearby tree and circled it while sniffing loudly. "I'd say it's the 11th of August, 1915."

"You got all that by smelling a tree?" Rory asked skeptically.

The Doctor defensively straightened his red bow tie, while Amy chose to ignore his comment. "But why are we here, Doctor?" Amy asked.

"I can't be sure, Pond. But the TARDIS wants us here and that's good enough for me. Your holiday will have to be postponed though." The Doctor then set off at a brisk pace into the hospital.

Inside, the hospital was filled with nurses bustling about. The threesome passed a group of young nurses, barely older than sixteen, discussing the looks of soldiers.

"Did you hear them, Doctor? Why are they talking about soldiers?" Amy asked in a whisper.

"Oh you silly, silly ginger. It's wartime. Didn't you study World War One in school?"

"Clearly not enough," Rory sarcastically muttered.

"Oi! That's enough out of you!" Amy playfully lightly punched her husband's shoulder.

Meanwhile The Doctor had grown quiet. The surprise on his face was evident. He was staring at a beautiful redheaded woman, no older than her early twenties. "It can't be…" The Doctor whispered to himself. The redhead began walking down the crowded white hallway. After recovering from the shock of seeing the woman, The Doctor started running after her, leaving the Ponds behind.

Pushing his way through the crowd, he saw her turn into a patient's room. The Doctor caught up to the redheaded nurse. She was sitting with a wounded soldier. "Are you a relative of his?" she indicated to the sleeping soldier.

"No, I'm just The Doctor."

Confusing his meaning, the redhead handed him the soldier's charts and said, "Look these over, will you? We need to decide if his procedure is necessary. Then we can head next door for poor old Mr. Jenkins' check up."

The Doctor looked over the man's confusing chart. The man had suffered some sort of injury to the midsection. "Oh my dear fragile humans," The Doctor said to himself.

"I beg your pardon?" the nurse asked confused.

"Nothing," The Doctor hastily responded. "What did you say your name was?"

"I didn't say," she answered haughtily. She regarded him for a moment, "It's Aggie."

"Well, Aggie, it seems we have a little bit of a misunderstanding here." Seeing her confused face, The Doctor continued, "I'm not actually a doctor, and you're not actually a human."

In shock, Aggie stared at the fake doctor. After composing herself, she gave him a harsh look and, glaring at him directly, said quietly, "I think it might be best if you left now." She tried to push past him.

"I'm not human either! We're the same, you and I!" The Doctor tried to explain. He reached out to grab her shoulder, "I bet you don't remember anything about your family, the past years of your life are fuzzy, and you have a pocket watch that won't open!"

After trying to shake him off, Aggie aggressively pulled a cord signaling for more assistance. A troop of nurses rushed into the room. They began to pin his arms behind his back and escort him out of the room.

"He's just gone into shock. He recently found out his brother is dead. Send him outside and make sure the rest of the staff knows not to let him back in," Aggie lied while looking him directly in the eye, glaring at him as if to dare him to contradict her.

* * *

The nurses left him on the bench outside of the hospital. He remained on the bench until Amy and Rory caught up with him later. "Doctor, how dare you leave us like that?" Amy scolded. Seeing his dejected face, she asked more soothingly, "Who was that woman you were chasing after? An old companion?"

"In a way, yes, I suppose she is," he replied, getting a far-off look in his eye. "She was, and I fancy she still is, more special to me than a companion has ever been. She was my everything, my reason for being, my reason to keep fighting."

"Then what does that make us? Your humble servants?" Rory sassily questioned.

But as per usual, his comment was ignored. "She is my wife," The Doctor concluded.

"I don't think so, Doctor, I like to think I know my daughter fairly well, and that is not River. Or any form of her for that matter. And I'm pretty sure she should be in prison right now." Amy smiled fondly when she thought of her only daughter, the Doctor's wife.

"No, it's not. She is my first wife, the love of my lives. The strongest woman I know, the ruler of Galifrey, The Empress."


End file.
